Steps toward a better world

Published 6:50 pm, Monday, July 26, 2010

VOS founder José Alejandro Flores, a San Antonio native, started his company with his own investment and a $50,000 loan.

VOS founder José Alejandro Flores, a San Antonio native, started his company with his own investment and a $50,000 loan.

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VOS founder Jos? Alejandro Flores, a San Antonio native, started his company with his own investment and a $50,000 loan.

VOS founder Jos? Alejandro Flores, a San Antonio native, started his company with his own investment and a $50,000 loan.

Steps toward a better world

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A San Antonio-based sandal company hopes to redefine putting the best foot forward.

VOS sandals — or flips, as the company calls them — is the brainchild of San Antonio native and St. Mary's University MBA recipient José Alejandro Flores, 29. He was motivated to promote environmental awareness, sustainability and fair trade while also pursuing a broad charitable purpose.

For VOS, that means giving away a pair of sandals to a needy person for every pair sold. In addition, the company plans to donate a portion of its revenue to educational and health services in Guatemala, where it acquires its raw materials. Flores said he saw other brands doing the same thing.

One of those companies, TOMS, has a “One for One” movement that has attracted national media attention.

Soles4Souls Inc., a charity based in Nashville, Tenn., that has teamed with VOS to distribute shoes to needy individuals, said it is excited to get the company's help.

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Elizabeth Kirk, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit group, said it receives excess shoe inventories and other assistance from about 1,500 footwear brands. But only VOS and one or two other companies have agreed to donate a pair for each pair sold, Kirk said.

With officials estimating that about 300 million children worldwide do not have a pair of shoes, she said the need is immense.

As the company said in a news release announcing its launch this month, “VOS was founded to answer the simple question: Can people afford to care?”

Flores said the company believes most people want to help the planet and others. They just aren't sure how.

“We have created a program and a product that will help them do that at a price that is reasonable,” said Flores, a former Bromley Communications and Continental Airlines employee who worked as a consultant in Guatemala City before starting VOS and its parent company, DeFlores LLC.

Virginia Terry, advisory services manager for BSR, which represents businesses promoting social responsibility, said a more environmentally sensitive and sustainable business strategy is increasingly seen as the smartest way, and a more profitable way, to operate.

“It's moving mainstream,” she said.

VOS' first product is a natural rubber sandal made by a Guatemalan manufacturer. The sandals come in six colors and eight sizes and are sold for $19.95 apiece.

They are sold online exclusively, either through amazon.com or the company's website, www.vosflips.com.

Flores believes there is a market for the shoes and for the ideals his company represents. But in his first foray into product sales and with worldwide economies still unpredictable, he would not discuss sales and growth projections for VOS.

The company has about 10 workers, and Flores started it with his own investment and a $50,000 loan.

“There's still a lot of unknowns,” he said.

Aside from the sandal giveaway, VOS has agreed to work with the Guatemalan National Rubber Association and AgroSalud Guatemala to get education and health care funding to rubber-growing communities in the country.

Five percent to 10 percent of the company's revenue would be dedicated to charitable activities annually, depending on how strong the year was, Flores said.

He said his dedication to helping others was engrained by his parents in his childhood and has grown as he's seen the needs of developing countries through his work.

He also believes he is part of a generation that understands how interdependent the world has become and wants companies to be more giving and environmentally responsible.